Our next Liberation Rite, and it'll be tough, is against the Essence. Can we pull off a third win?

Character Bio:

Tamitha TheynThe Wings of Vengeance

There are a lot of antagonistic characters in the game, but most of them are just treated as jokes, especially Manley and Barker. Tamitha is one of the ones I most commonly see as totally hated, which I personally think is unfair to her. Yes, she's a vengeance-driven jerk, but can you honestly blame her? The war with the Commonwealth has been slowly but surely wiping out her people, and war makes monsters of even the best of people. I don't fault her at all for wanting to see it won decisively, especially since her people are looming on extinction, although I do understand why everyone else just sees her as a vengeance-driven jerk. She also hates her sister to pieces, which is problematic as Pamitha absolutely holds herself to blame for her sister's exile and is willing to go to drastic lengths to see her free.

Tamitha leads the Essence, as founded by the Matriarch Triesta Tithis. The principles the Essence were meant to champion are primarily liberty and piety, which Tamitha is doing an excellent job with exactly one of these. She openly scorns Triesta as a traitor to her people, so the piety thing is shot. The Book of Rites also touches on the difficulties the Harps and the people of the Empire had, even before the Commonwealth's establishment, and Triesta wanted people to unite as one and overcome this. Yeah, Tamitha's failing there too.

In the versus mode, Tamitha's only competition is her sister Pamitha, who boasts two extra points of Quickness and Hope over her. As far as Masteries go, Pamitha has Sleight of Wing to swap places with teammates with a salute, and Shrike Dash for faster-moving dashes. Tamitha only has the one, and that's Fell Swoop, which you saw us use to our great advantage in our last rite against the Chastity to barrel in and banish the entire team at once. Pamitha's better if you prefer to maneuver around your enemies, while Tamitha obviously suits barreling in and crushing their defenses all at once.

Streaming today at 7PM Mountain Time. As before, that amounts to 6PM on the West Coast and 9PM on the East.

Man, Kalir, I think you've lost a good half of the rites since the first liberation. It's getting out of hand!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kalir

Yeah I took some time before work this morning to play a couple of versus AI matches. Played using characters who I felt I was weakest with. If nothing else, I will be far better at putting Shae to good use during the Rites, and I won't be horrid with Ti'zo anymore (but I will still probably not be great).

I imagine at some point you're going to go over the mechanics of the Plan's success? I'm curious if you can just liberate four or five Nightwings and fail your way through the rest of the game. Also curious how much it matters whom you liberate (Nightwing or otherwise).

Eventually I will, but that won't be for a little while. Hell, I may put it off until the end of the campaign, it's kind of huge spoilers.

Time to reunite with a few triumvirates we haven't seen in a while, starting once again with the Accusers. Also: have stream issues.

Character Bio:

Lendel the LiarThe Bitter Rival

In a lot of ways, Lendel is pretty similar to Manley. They are both self-absorbed people, exiled for corruption (in Lendel's case, he was a constable who used planted evidence to get people exiled). However, while Manley is clearly meant to be a love-to-hate sort of character, Lendel is someone who seems far more dangerous, as he considers everything that happens to be linked to him personally. As such, Ti'zo's victorious goal over him at Oralech's Liberation Rite was an insult so profound that he now bears a huge grudge against us, and Ti'zo personally.

The Accusers, as a group, are named for a legion that their founder, the Master-General Gol Golathanian, served with during his time in the Empire of Sahr. They are intended to value things like justice and loyalty, as those who are willing to serve their leaders and country to the end. If you aren't talking about Lendel, the Accusers of today are doing a great job of that, as his commanding (and self-absorbed) personality led him to lead them. But Lendel himself, as expected, falls short of many of these virtues.

Lendel has slightly less Quickness and significantly less Hope compared to Hedwyn, but has access to the Critical Strike mastery, giving him a much more dangerous Power-Cast. As such, he's best suited to players who are better at timing their Aura-Casts than Hedwyn is, even if he's fairly humdrum in basically every other aspect as a result.

I already went over wyrm culture in Sir Gilman's bio, and how he is an exemplary wyrm-knight. Sir Deluge is quite the opposite, and has the bad luck to be a coward in a culture that prizes selfless courage above all else. Having a willingness to stay out of trouble meant he survived far more battles than your average wyrm-knight, which meant he was promoted beyond his ken and forced to lead groups in situations he just flat didn't have the nerves for. He's almost Fire Emblem early stage boss comical in his ways, but his cautionary tale of societal pressure is really tragic, at least to me.

Even the Pyrehearts, as founded by Underking Ores, are an extension of this culture, meant to not fear death and to live life to the fullest with bravery and honor. Sir Deluge is forced into leadership he neither has aptitude nor desire for, and takes it out on his underlings, including Sir Gilman. I'm not saying he's blameless, but I can understand him at least, far moreso than the likes of Lendel or Manley. He was born into a prison of expectations, and that's the entire world he knows.

Statwise, Sir Deluge makes up for lower Quickness and Hope compared to Sir Gilman with significantly higher Presence, which as you might recall means that his Aura-Trail is longer, not wider. He also possesses Greater Cleave and Avenging Aid (and Stunning Claim), meaning he's there to set up huge Aura-Trail traps and then be a coward, ideally stalling and banishing for his team to return faster. Meanwhile, Sir Gilman has Vigorous Slash, Quick Draw, and Valiant Return, pushing him to be far more aggressive and to take on the enemy triumvirate head-on.

When the going gets tough, the coach delivers that dramatic speech that keeps the team going.

Character Bio:

Volfred SandalwoodThe Plan Maker

From the beginning, Sandalwood is only mentioned in passing, as a loose contact of Hedwyn's and a client of the Lone Minstrel (and we'll come back to that during his bio). You only meet him during the end of the first run at the Liberation Rite, and he pretty much instantly tells you "thank you for your time, you are free to go". In almost any other game, this would be the guy who you'd expect to have an ulterior motive, as surely as the main religious organization of any given JRPG has diabolical leadership.

Volfred Sandalwood is many things, but he is not a dishonest or non-compassionate man at all. He's no idealist like Hedwyn, but he wants the same thing, and that thing is freedom. Not just for himself, but for everyone unjustly imprisoned due to the Rites. He's very pragmatic about it, and is willing to roll with punches that would make anyone else give up. One even wonders if he has more in store should the Plan to topple the Commonwealth's corrupt leadership fail.

So what does this mean for the Nightwings, which he serves as the effective leader of (not us, as most games would have you do)? Well, they were originally created to serve as a common enemy for the other eight triumvirates, with the unfair advantage that they always get a shot at the Liberation Rite. Which, if we treat this as an apocalyptic setting, makes us the zombies: the background fodder that nevertheless is the driving threat for everyone else to unite against or squabble over. Volfred turns that kind of philosophy on its head: if we win enough, then the entire system is broken, and no one else will ever be sent into exile.

Volfred's the only other Sap in versus mode, compared to Manley. Volfred has better Glory, Quickness, and Hope even without his bonus from his Masteries (Steadfast Hope and Guardian Shield), and works as a great generic character for a Sap who still has a chance to Blink in and score, while Manley is a more technical sort who relies on Unstable Sapling to attack his foes, and Numbing Gust to prevent them from just banishing everyone and calling it good. But honestly, given a choice, would you rather play as Volfred or Manley, no matter their stats?

Stream Sunday at 7PM my time, as usual. I may put up a bonus video of some versus mode Rites I did while I was waiting for my stream to even out.

Streaming in five hours. Here's a bonus video from the last stream, where I did a few couch versus matches against the AI to kill time and hope that my frames would behave.

Character Bio:

Messenger-ImpThe Tireless Runner

This isn't any specific messenger-imp we're discussing here, there's quite a few of them around. There is a certain subspecies of imp that can actually move from the Downside to the Commonwealth; they are the only creatures naturally capable of doing so. Most of them have the same general desires as their non-amphibious brethren: they want something to do and food to eat. As such, a few of them going to the Commonwealth is strange but not necessarily a concern for the people there. Doesn't hurt that they generally take pains to avoid notice.

They matter for us because they're the only real way to communicate with the agents of Volfred's Plan in the Commonwealth. Volfred's personally trained a team of these messenger-imps to pass correspondence up and down between the two realms. If it wasn't for these little guys, we wouldn't be able to act out the Plan. And it doesn't hurt that we can still get messages from the exiles who have gone free this way, either.

The real reason the messenger-imps deserve their own bio is because they are the only other playable imp in the versus mode. Ti'zo, of course, is the other one, and bears Safe Return, Elusive Nature, and Titan's Rage. He is pretty much what you'd expect from a standard Imp that wants to go into the fight head-on. The messenger-imp trades Quickness for Hope, and has a really impossible set of masteries: Moon Sign, Last Laugh, Wild Heart, and Inner Glory. Their job is less to attack enemies and more to pose a constant threat to the enemy's Pyre, either by running in and dealing a decisive 25 damage, or by dying close enough that their team can use the Moon Sign they leave behind.

Falcon Ron is an oddball native to the Downside, who manages (or is) the Slugmarket. Although he's got kind of a tiresome personality, he will gladly trade in Sol, the currency of the Commonwealth, in exchange for Talismans we can use to get an edge in the Rites. He frequently comes up with new wares to sell at us, although given my playstyle, we don't often have the money to buy them.

The game spends very little time on the nature of Falcon Ron, awarding him all of a single page in the Book of Rites. That one page basically says everything I've said up there. Nobody really knows why they want to trade in Sol, or why they have no interest in the Rites, or anything like that, and Jomuer's best guess is that they are just preoccupied with other things. Which, hey, that's fair. The world goes on around and without you.

The Talismans he sells are instrumental to doing well in the Rites. We've seen a lot of them already, and he adds plenty to his stock as the game goes on, but again, you need Sol to spend, and the most reliable way to do that is with your Vocations, which don't often come up. He also sells a number of other things that come in handy: Stardust to amplify Talismans, Serums to give exiles stat boosts, and even some Scribe Snuff if you want to respec any given exile. The biggest problem is that he's competing with the stuff you get from the Scribe Trials of Sandra, and he usually loses. If you don't yet appreciate the power of Triesta's Plume, you will by the end of this set of clips.

I also popped open two empty save files and checked what the name of the moon-touched girl was there. It read Mae, so I don't know if that's her true name, or if it's just a placeholder. Either way, there's your answer.

We've heard the Voice throughout all of our travels, from the moment when we first read the Book of Rites. We haven't known much about them up until recently, and have only heard them as a distant, haughty, and demeaning presence, who wants us to adhere to the sacred tradition of the Rites above all else. They will commentate every Rite, except the one where we face Oralech because that bends the rules a bit too much, even for him.

The Voice is only one of several, but not many. This is something of a catch with the Rites. By default, Readers can't go free, because they're too busy being the Reader of their triumvirate. However, being a Reader does not innately prevent you from performing in a Rite, as Volfred has plainly demonstrated. So it is possible for a Reader to go free, as Brighton did before. Upon doing so, they have the unique opportunity to become a Voice, which is to say, to continue the line of Androbeles.

In this tale, the Voice, and the line of Androbeles, represents the Commonwealth at its worst, moreso than any other character, even those like Lendel or Manley. The Voice is perfectly happy with the status quo, and would have loved it if the Reader had followed in their footsteps, but Volfred's Plan shut that down as soon as the Nightwings picked us up. Had we been discovered by literally any other triumvirate, even a relatively benign one like the Fate or Tempers, we'd have probably been Archjustice Androbeles X, had we enough Rites to make it.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the Voice is that they can't actually do anything. They can say as much as they want, but that is literally all they can do. The Plan proceeds, both in the Downside and the Commonwealth, and they cannot do anything else to influence it whatsoever. If someone else gets liberated, like Tamitha or Udmildhe, it is because they prevailed over us, not because the Voice foiled us. And when we get to the end of the story, it will be about everyone in the Downside, and not about the Voice.

Liberation Rites coming up faster and faster these days. Who's it gonna be, us or the Dissidents?

Character Bio:

Barker AshpawsThe Chaos Mongrel

Been literally 20 episodes since we've seen this guy, and I am incredibly disappointed in all of you for this. Barker Ashpaws was a hunter back in the Commonwealth, and while he certainly enjoyed it well enough, he didn't really get much of a thrill for life in general up there. This lead to him being an all-around hellraiser for the Commonwealth, although he didn't get exiled until he went and relieved himself on the statue of Archjustice Androbeles IV (I'm wrong in the video). That would be the guy who outlawed literacy, if you recall. In the Downside, he's replaced hunting with the Rites, and he doesn't actually care about winning and going free so much as just going ham and beating other people, even denying them their freedom. That said, he does have a weird sense of honor, especially if you try making a wager with him...

Oddly, this puts Barker just behind Dalbert in terms of representing his triumvirate, the Dissidents. Formed by Ha'ub the Swallow, under the simple tenet of "Those who do not belong, belong", the Dissidents are the ultimate punk rock triumvirate. If Barker could improve on any one aspect, he could stand to make his triumvirate MORE motley, as it's currently a cur-only club. Still, you can't fault him for tarnishing the legacy of the Dissidents.

As mentioned way before, Barker has less Hope and Quickness than Rukey, but makes up for it with access to Lightning Run. So while he lacks Rukey's maneuverability or Dalbert's tenacity, he is among the fastest of exiles in versus mode, and can get through holes in their defense like nobody's business. Effectively, you're giving him the hope of a Cur with the quickness of a Wyrm in one character, so any time you have with Barker should be spent throwing him headlong towards their Pyre.

We never actually encounter the Greater Titans as living creatures during our time in the Downside. You can tell, because everyone remains alive by the time you hit the epilogue. These colossal monstrous beings, led by Yslach Astral-Born, have very few traits in common, save that they ruled the Downside and made it the horrid place it is. The Eight Scribes, in their travels to escape and their creation/discovery of the Rites, slew the Greater Titans one by one, with two exceptions.

One of these exceptions is the Tattered Mantle, which kind of died on its own, taking its bearer Khaylmer Rope-Caller with it. The other is Yslach Astral-Born, who is mostly sealed under the Pit of Milithe, but whose body was used to create the forty copies of the Book of Rites. So right from the start, these guys are heavily tied to the Rites, and the Eight Scribes knew it. They also knew that if the Greater Titans' stars ever returned, that was a sure sign that the Rites are ending.

We never get any explanation for why the Titan Stars are doing what they do, or why invoking them seems to make the other team stronger. And to be honest, they feel really weird. Sure, Supergiant Games does this difficulty setting all the time and in most of their games it's fine. In this, though, you are expected to be on even ground with the other triumvirate after all is said and done, especially if you turn the other actual difficulty modifier up. I'm not totally down on the idea, it's still a neat difficulty setting and it gives the other triumvirates a chance to beat you, letting you see other story arcs you might not expect. It's just a bit weird is all.

One last bit of good cheer with a Liberation Rite before it all goes super serious.

Character Bio:

CelesteThe Gate Guardian

This mysterious character awaits at Scribesgate to start off each Liberation Rite. She asks of everyone what it is they're here for, and oversees the Rite itself with a song of the Scribes and the Triumvirate present. She also is very much a stickler for the rules, and demands respect for the Eight Scribes and the traditions of the Rites, which very few triumvirates manage to keep up. For most intents and purposes, she's basically a non-character.

There are two very curious aspects of her character, though. First is her attitude towards the Commonwealth. She doesn't hold the same desire to see it overthrown as Volfred does, of course, but neither does she have any love for it. She scolds Manley for yammering about how he'll make the Commonwealth a "better" place as much as she scolds Barker or Tamitha for trash-talking the sanctity of the Rites.

Second is in her relation to Tariq, the Lone Minstrel. He has just as important a role to play in the Liberation Rite as she does, although he is bound to the Nightwings. And it's clear that, for the most part, she does enjoy his company, although she wishes he'd take things as seriously as she does. But the two of them are both very integral to the Rites in some way, and they absolutely work as a pair. It's possible that they are one of the last remaining links to the Eight Scribes themselves, although of course neither one will talk more about that.

Celeste is not playable in the Versus mode at all. Even if she could work as a playable exile, she does not take part in them. She's here to see to it that the cycle of the Rites continues until they have completed. Involving herself directly is forbidden.

Celeste is part of a pair, and the other half of that pair is Tariq, the Lone Minstrel. This mysterious character has been with us, and with the Nightwings, since the beginning. He's closely linked to both the Nightwings and the Rites, although he rarely speaks up save to keep everyone on track. To the Nightwings, he probably matters about as much to the Plan as the Reader does, especially given that he does not (or can not) partake in the Rites.

Unlike Celeste, though, he seems slightly more willing to skirt the boundaries of his role. The biggest clue in this regard is that he considers Volfred to be his "client". This is an odd choice of title to call someone who is ostensibly calling all of the shots for the group, and in many cases Volfred mostly just consults him for advice on occasion, although they do consider each other friends.

As mentioned, it's incredibly likely that Tariq serves as one of the last links to the Eight Scribes, alongside Celeste. However, while I have no proof of this and the game never does anything to indicate it, I expect that Tariq actually wishes for the cycle of the Rites to end. The Plan is something he's only loosely concerned with, and the only time he shows any real emotion or interest is when dealing with Celeste. If the Rites are ended, they may be free to spend a bit of time together.

Like Celeste, Tariq is not playable in versus mode. About the most playable he gets is his White Lute, which can play lute-only renditions of the many songs you hear on your travels through the Downside. At certain moments, he will even sing songs for the team during their travels, and of course, he always sings during a Liberation Rite.

There is a lot of mystery about how the Rites came to be in the first place, the form they took, and what makes them tick. The only ones who might have any idea about them are the Eight Scribes, and they're not telling. We've already learned a lot about them from the Book of Rites: a ragtag band of eight exiles who came to the Downside, and set up the Rites as the basis for a new and fair Commonwealth of Sahr to replace the old Empire.

In the Commonwealth, they are revered as godlike beings who may impart their blessings on those who seek them out, and in the Downside it's implied that they have a hand in directing the Rites. But this isn't some fantasy setting where the gods can be chatted up by any hiker determined enough. If the Eight Scribes are still around, they hide themselves just enough that you could chalk their blessings up to morale or chance.

Whatever the case of the Eight Scribes, they were once real people, but they aren't around now, save as guidance for those who come after. The Book of Rites, and the two mysterious singers, are about all the Downside has to link them to their current day. The Commonwealth, as of the events in this game, seem to have forgotten the ideals of the Eight Scribes while still emptily revering their names. The only thing they still do is shine their stars over the Celestial Landmarks, and even then only until the Rites end.

Last post coming up soon. No more character bios in it. No one else to talk about.

So I have a few things to discuss here. We'll take them in a sensible order.

Best Laid Plans:

While they make it look like it for the entire game, Volfred's Plan isn't a percentage chance of success failure like in Mega Man X5. That's just there to give you an idea of what to expect. The actual outcome of the Plan has three possibilities.

If you free at least 6 Nightwings, Volfred's Plan that he talks about, which is to say, his Plan A, succeeds, and the Commonwealth is bloodlessly overthrown.

If you free at least 3 Nightwings, or Volfred himself, Plan B happens, which is what we got: the Highwing Remnants pick that time to strike and turn the tide.

Failing this, you get Plan C. I don't know what it exactly entails, but it's probably not pretty. But yeah, that's about it for the Plan! The only thing that matters is exile count. The state of the Plan also affects some character endings, some obvious (Tamitha) and some less obvious (Lendel, if he is freed).

Everyone Has a Story:

There's also a bunch of things that alter everyone's epilogues, usually involving characters they have a history with. For example, if Shae were to end up somewhere else from Almer and Dalbert, then she obviously couldn't get together with Almer in the end. It's pretty easy to tell which people have which relationships, but it's important to look for anyway for maximum story.

The Third Game:

As of this game, Supergiant Games has released three games, and while I dearly love all of them, it's for different reasons.

Bastion was their first effort, and I stand by the claim that it is the best Mana game out there. To date, it is also the most accessible of their output by far, with minimal instruction and very familiar gameplay, requiring almost no outside-the-box thinking for how to do stuff. I like it a lot, but now that I've had time to try their other games, I think this is probably my least favorite entry (which says far more about the other two games than Bastion).

Transistor would probably be their weakest entry overall, but it's so perfectly built for my tastes that I adore it to bits anyway. The complexity of the battle system means it's not for everyone, and while the lore is pretty good for what it is, it's also very difficult to get to, requiring you to use everything in ways most players wouldn't be okay with. It's an excellent game for trying to theorycraft your way into silly combos, and I am always always ALWAYS in favor of cyberpunk settings, but you need to really want to play the game as it's intended to enjoy it.

Finally, Pyre. As far as strict gameplay goes, this is probably the weakest entry so far, but that's mostly because of how simple everyone has to be in order to accommodate the Rites. Storywise, though, Pyre blows both of the older games out of the water, absolutely no question. By far my favorite part
is the fact that the player not only continues the story if they fail, but they are on many occasions encouraged to fail (such as when dealing with the Fate, the Essence, or the True Nightwings). And when you play this game, you might not get anything like what we saw, just because there are countless divergent points in the story that change up so much about it.

I absolutely adore this game and all of Supergiant Games' output. The end.

Neither Pyre nor Transistor really grabbed me the way Bastion did, but they're both incredibly memorable games. The art, music and setting are all so strong and unique that the games stand out even if I don't love playing them. I honestly didn't enjoy the core loop of Pyre (talk to a bunch of people, move around the map, play some rites) very much, but there were a couple of story beats that I thought were super strong. The match where Oralech shows up and the Voice abandons you, leaving you to play the rites in silence is one of the coolest things I've played in years.

Heck, I think I'm gonna listen to the soundtrack now. It's so good. But ugh, that Picardy third at the end of In the Flame - Darren, you should know better. >:[